40 BIRDS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 



59. Bubo MaCUlOSUS, Vieil. Gal, PI. 23 ; Shix 

 Africana, Temm. ; 8. Nisuella, Lath. ; Le Chou- 

 couhou, Le Vail., PI. 39. 



Above grey-brown, more or less variegated with h'ght 

 ochreous (or white) spots and blotches ; below, the ground 

 colour is more ochreous, and the markings, chiefly fine 

 wavy bars, with a few large blotches, are of the same brown 

 as the back. A dark circle surrounds the facial disk, broken 

 under the chin with rufous and white, immediately under 

 which is a broad white collar ; facial disk grey. Feet 

 feathered to the toes, lightish-yellow or dirty-white, speckled 

 with brown. Tail broadly barred with ochreous brown. 

 Length, 19" ; wing, 13" ; tail, 7^". 



The commonest owl in South Africa. It is found throughout the 

 colony, and extends to Natal, and as far as the Zambes'. Mr. Blyth 

 writes me word that it was brought from the Somalie country by Capt. 

 Burton. Frequents forests, open lands, bush — covered or cultivated 

 places indiscriminately. I think it is subject to partial migrations, as 

 on several occasions I have, while hunting for game, come upon little 

 parties of eight or ten individuals, which kept together in their flight. 

 Pointer-dogs will stand to them as staunqhly as to game. My late 

 lamented friend, the Rev. John Fry, of Rondebosch, a zealous observer 

 of birds, informed me that they regularly frequented a grove of 

 fir-trees in his garden at one season- of the year. I have noted them 

 in these trees in October. About twilight they begin to move, ascend- 

 ing to the highest branch, and uttering their loud " hoo, hoo " for a 

 'quarter of an hour together, and then sailing off to the Cape Flats in 

 search of their prey, which consists of mice, rats, moles, and some- 

 times frogs. They lay two purely white eggs : axis, 2" ; diam., 1" 9'", 

 in holes of rocks, and sometimes in an old termite's heap, or even 

 on the bare ground. 



I sink Le Vaillant's Choic-couhou {S. Nisuella, Lath.) into a synonym 

 of this species on the authority of Sundevall, who states that he has 

 seen Le Vaillant's original specimen, which is nothing more than B. 

 Maculosus. I should think this correct. And as regards habits, those 

 described by Le Vaillant are precisely those of J3. Maculosus, parti- 

 cularly the cracking noise made by the bill, which this bird con- 

 stantly makes. 



Genus EPHIALTES, Keyserling and Blasius. 

 Bill moderate, the base concealed and broad, the sides 

 compressed, with the culmen flattened at the base and curved 

 to the tip, which is hooked ; the lateral margins curved ; the 

 nostrils rounded, placed in the fore part of the cere, and 

 covered by the basal plumes. Wings long, with the second, 

 third, and fourth quills nearly equal and longest. Tail 

 short, and more or less even. Tarsi rather long, and covered 

 with short plumes to the base of the toes. Toes long, 



